by Steve Reinbrecht
Fire escapes were not required in the apartment building
from which two young women jumped – one to her death – as fire destroyed their
apartment early Monday, borough manager Mike Hart said Wednesday.
Maira Bazan, 24, died after jumping from a third floor
window and landing in an alley.
Brooke Maione, 21, who also jumped, remained in critical condition Tuesday, the Reading Eagle
reported. A family with two young children who lived below escaped from the
first floor.
The third floor, from which the women jumped, had a window that
looked onto a flat roof. It’s possible that fierce heat and smoke roaring up a
stairway from the second floor blocked the women from that window, Hart said.
A door at the bottom of the steps may have helped, he said.
A borough inspector noted that the apartments had smoke
detectors during an inspection last year, Hart said.
The fire started on the second floor, state police spokesman
Trooper David C. Boehm said Wednesday. The cause was undetermined, he said.
The tragedy puts an urgency on a drive to equip homes with
working smoke detectors, said Jared Renshaw, of the Western Berks Fire
Department.
A fundraiser for the effort is planned Tuesday, Aug. 30, from
5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, 3580 Penn Ave.
Firefighters and others plan to install smoke detectors in homes on Sept.
17 on North Galen Hall Road in South Heidelberg Township and Oct. 8 on Woodrow
Avenue and South Hull Street in Sinking Spring.
According to her obituary, Bazan was born in Reading. She played soccer for Tulpehocken
High School and graduated in 2010. She graduated from RACC. She worked at Dieffenbach's Potato Chips in Womelsdorf. She left behind her
parents, brother, sisters, and four grandparents.
The latest fire death in Sinking Spring had been in January 1991,
when Francis Seidel III, 44, a lawyer and former borough solicitor, and his
son, Francis IV, 12, died when fire destroyed their home at 445 Penn Ave.
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